As some of you already knew I have been working on a book project about Atari games since 02/2015 with the help of Al/AA. It’s focused on in-game graphics, presenting the best/iconic and - sometimes not so good looking - games.

It is comparable to the popular books like “Visual Compendium of C64/ZX Spectrum/NES” and “ZX Spectrum/C64 in Pixels” but with more focus on screenshots. There is editorial content in my book, but no large interviews or "making ofs".

It should have been a small book with about 200 pages, focusing on the 2600 only. As time went by I thought it would be a good idea to add another Atari system – the Atari 7800 ProSystem - since the game library is rather small and could be added in full. As soon I was done with the 7800 I looked at my completed 5200 SuperSystem collection and again, I went on and added all games for the system to my book project.

At that point I was already at 500+ pages. Playing all those 5200 games again after quite some time I went another step further, adding the – from my perspective – best or interesting games for the 8-bit computer family. Knowing that there is no chance of adding all good 8-bit games I aimed for an easier prey with a finite goal: The Lynx library, it’s just 74 games, can’t be that hard to add them and it’s an 8-bit system anyway…

So now I am at 704 pages and this without even covering prototypes, homebrews and aftermarket releases. At one point I have to draw a line if I ever want to publish the book.And here we are. The book is close to be done. I have to unify the positions of the CIB, streamline the information content and change some shadows for the sprites. It’s a routine task and doesn’t involve time-consuming researches.

But why a Kickstarter project if everything is close to be done? And why so much? Creating a book is one thing; actually get it printed is a bit different. It’s expensive. You have a minimum number, and a quality printing costs extra money, it’s not just some random internet printer.

If you are interested in such a book give it a look on Kickstarter right here:

alexh wrote:It does seem unfair to profit from the hard work of game developers.

In the past fans created not-for-profit gaming fan websites which could be read by everyone for free and suddenly there is this push to sell books containing content they don't own.

Had the book been mainly words, interviews etc. (the main purpose of a book) I would imagine there would have been no dispute.

Seems to me from the OP that it's just screenshots and short reviews of basically every Atari game. That doesn't seem unfair at all. It's no different than Pat Contri's "Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the NES Library 1985-1995" book.